Sexual violence occurs across all age and sociodemographic groups, however women are overwhelmingly the victims. Understanding the nature and prevalence of sexual violence can inform the development and evaluation of policies, programs and services. Data on the prevalence of sexual violence in Australia is available from the ABS Personal Safety Survey (PSS) which collects information on the experiences of violence for women and men in Australia. This measure relates to sexual violence perpetrated by anyone, including strangers.
The visualisation below allows users to explore the estimate and proportion of Australians aged 18 and over who have experienced sexual violence at least once since the age of 15 (lifetime prevalence) and at least once in the last 12 months (12 month prevalence), by sex, and relationship with perpetrator. In 2016, almost 1 in 5 women (18% or 1.7 million) and almost 1 in 20 men (4.7% or 429,000) had experienced sexual violence at least once since the age of 15. Women were more likely to experience sexual violence by an intimate partner (9.2%) or other people they know (10%) than by a stranger (4.6%).